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Bok brains trust share their skills

Mon, 20 Jan 2014 11:51

We've had a great response from the provinces

The South African Rugby Union will host a ground-breaking national coaching symposium in Stellenbosch later this month, where ideas will be shared between coaches from junior provincial to Springbok level.

All provincial coaches have been invited to the symposium - an initiative of SARU's High Performance Department - which will run from 27 to 31 January at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport.

Seminars will be led by the three Springbok assistant coaches Johann van Graan, Ricardo Loubscher and John McFarland, as well as national coaching consultants Pieter de Villiers, Louis Koen and Chean Roux and SARU High Performance General Manager Rassie Erasmus and Willie Maree, SARU's Technical Support Manager.

All facets of game play and preparation will be on the agenda as well as technical analysis.

"As far as we know, this is the first time we'll host a national coaching symposium on this scale," said Jurie Roux, CEO of SARU.

"Our Springbok coaches will share their coaching philosophy and principles but we'll also get feedback and see how our elite professional coaches can work together to improve our approach to the game on a nationwide scale.

"We've had a great response from the provinces to the initiative and have also invited the coaches of the four SARU Academies, established in 2012 in Border, Eastern Province, South Western Districts and Boland."

The High Performance Department's cooperation with the 14 provinces and the Super Rugby franchises will be stepped up in the coming months when members of the Springbok coaching team and SARU's Mobi-Unit visit the provinces to work with the players on the training field.

"We've worked really closely together with the Super Rugby franchises and the provinces since last year, and it's something we want to increase this season," said Erasmus.

"We've extended invitations to all the provinces and franchises and will assist them wherever they require us. This will include the Springboks' Medical team, whose members are also available for assistance.

"I believe we have started reaping the rewards of closer cooperation between SARU and the provinces and that everyone can gain from working together. The Springbok coaches and the Mobi-Unit have put in a lot of very hard work for the benefit of rugby in South Africa and we're very excited about the symposium and the coming months of working together."